Election 2013: Coalition retains hold on Gold Coast

The Coalition won the election with a national swing of 3.5 per cent, seizing a swathe of seats in Tasmania, Victoria and across New South Wales.

The incumbent Liberal National Party of Queensland (LNP) members in the three central and two outer Gold Coast electorates retained their seats.

The vote saw local swings away from the Australian Labor Party (ALP) candidates and towards the LNP in two-party preferred results.

However, overall Gold Coast LNP numbers were down, due mainly to the Palmer United Party (PUP) candidates drawing up to 16 per cent of votes.

The returning Member for Moncrieff, Steve Ciobo says he's concerned that smaller parties, such as the Greens and Palmer United, could hold the balance of power in the senate.

"They did a deal together, looks like they have mutually supported each other which is unfortunate," he says.

"But it is impossible to speculate what that will actually mean in terms of legislation and whether or not they will have any common sense and more importantly whether or not they will have any respect for the judgement of the Australian people and the mandate they have delivered to the coalition."

The number of informal votes was down slightly across the local region.

Ms Andrews says she's looking forward to her first term in a coalition government.

"I have worked on a couple of committees in the last parliament; education and employment, and also public works," she says.

"Tony [Abbott] has indicated that he is not looking to make any changes to his front bench so I would hope that I would have a role on one of the committees and in time I may be promoted but I will be making sure I will be looking after the people of McPherson"